CF Industries Holdings Inc. reported third-quarter losses attributable to common shareholders of $87 million ($0.37 per diluted share) on net sales of $870 million compared to a year-ago loss of $30 million ($0.13 per share) and $680 million, respectively. While sales volumes grew to 4.88 million st from the year-ago 3.67 million st, prices were off for most nitrogen categories.
“The CF team delivered strong results in what is typically the quarter with the lowest demand in North America,” said Tony Will, CF president and CEO. “We ran our plants safely and at high utilization rates, leveraged our North American distribution platform and increased our global customer base. Together, these enabled our company to benefit from the strengthening global price environment that developed during the third quarter.”
CF noted that nitrogen prices are on the way up, saying that granular urea prices were $160/st FOB at New Orleans at the start of the quarter and $245/st at quarter’s end.